The conveyor troughs or pans of conventional scraper-chain conveyors, as used in particular in mining operations, consist of individual pans which are connected to one another in a tension-resistant manner at the ends, for example via toggle joints, with clearance such that they can perform certain angular movements in the horizontal and vertical with respect to one another. It is normal to use for the side walls of the pans, single-piece rolled sections which have, between their upper and lower flange, an intermediate flange to which the floor plate or tray over which material is conveyed is connected by welding. With the floor plate, the side walls form guide channels in which the scrapers are guided in the conveying upper run and in the lower return run of the conveyor.
Fittings of various types, such as elevated spill plates, guide bars, plough or cutter guides and the like, are often attached to the side walls of the pans used in mining.
The invention is based on a pan of the type known from DE-OS 33 24 108 and DE-OS 33 35 057. In these known pans, the side walls each consist of two superimposed, optionally identically constructed, U-shaped profiled strips which rest on one another with their profiled flanges. The conveying floor plate is welded to the profiled flanges of the profiled strips. The profiled strips, superimposed in pairs, can be welded to one another at their contacting flanges. The thickness of the floor plate adopted depends on the thickness of the abutting flanges of the profile strips. The use of a U-shaped rolled shape for the profiled strips results in relatively great weight. Any spill plates welded externally on the external faces of the profiled strips, also lead to an increase in weight and, furthermore, to an increase in the overall width of the pan.
A general object of the invention is to construct a pan such that it can be manufactured less expensive with the necessary high stability and low weight and, as far as possible, also reduced overall dimensions.